Comitán de Dominguez, in southern Chiapas, is a colonial city without the colonial pretense. It has been given the title of Pueblo Magico, along with other more famous cities like San Cristobal de las Casas, and San Miguel de Allende. It is...

Imagine your favorite church. Now remove the furniture, and put in a carpet of fragrant soft pine needles. Then light it up with tens of thousands of candles and enormous bouquets of local flowers. Breathtaking. In this indigenous village outside...

As six months of living in San Cristobal drew to a close, I felt like a condemned prisoner deciding on a last meal. Dona Chayito's Restaurant had become my absolute favorite place for Cochinita Pibil. Senora Chayito usually serves it with rice,...

NW of San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, there is a small Zapatista town, an autonomous village with no support from the Federal Government. They don't want any either. The Zapatista movement is one of autonomy and democracy on a grass...

Which one should I get? That’s a question we’ve all asked or have had asked of us on many a shopping spree. We were faced with this dilemma on a visit to a Mayan women’s weaving cooperative in the small village of Zinacantán, located in the...

Na Balom is the name of the large home once owned by archeologist Franz Blom in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, MX. The name is a play on words, the owner's name Blom with the Mayan word for Jaguar. Na Balom means the Jaguar House. Gertrudis...

San Juan Chamula is a little Tzotzil Mayan village not far from San Cristobal de las Casas in the Chiapas region of Mexico. I happened to venture there very early one morning after an all night bus ride from the Oxacan coast. Upon arrival, I was...

Mario Rene sells fresh jalapa cheese and quesadillas in In the Mercado Central of Guatemala City. Unlike the typical quesadillas you'd find in America, these are created using cornbread and Zacapa's regional cheese. An unexpected find, this shop...

I love checking out local zoos while traveling—especially when they're clean, humane, and informative. The Aurora Zoo in Guatemala is definitely a great spot to take the kids for an easy day of excitement. It's been open since 1924 and actually...

I was visiting the town of Santiago de Atitalan in Guatemala and went to the town market as part of this visit. It is a large and bustling market, as most markets tend to be, with portions that are both covered and un-covered and above-ground and...

We stumbled upon this place on an evening stroll in Antigua. I vote this bar run by an energetic couple, Carlos and Carolina, the most AFARish place in the city. You feel like you are in their living room because you basically are. You can dine...

If you're traveling in the Lake Atitlán region, consider a visit to the hillside cemetery in Sololá. The dead are honored here by being buried amid their favorite colors, and the vibrance and beauty of this place belies the fact that it is a...